Attributes of Color Hue Location on Color Wheel

Attributes of Color • Hue- Location on Color Wheel or Spectrum • Value- Relative Lightness or Darkness • Saturation- Relative Intensity or Dullness

Hue

Value

Saturation

Itten’s 7 Color Contrasts • • Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) Contrast of Saturation Contrast of Hue Contrast of Warm and Cool (Temperature) Contrast of Complements (Opposite Hues) Simultaneous Contrast of Extension (Proportion)

Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) • Color schemes with values ranging from very light to very dark • Emphasis is on value-change, so the range of hues and saturation tends to be relatively narrow

Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) Sugimoto

Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) Houndstooth Check Pattern

Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) John Singer Sargent, “Madame X’

Contrast of Light and Dark (Value) April Gornik, ‘Storm Above the Sea’

Contrast of Saturation • Color Schemes that juxtapose colors of various levels of intensity, i. e. neutrals next to pure hues • Neutrals typically play a supporting role, setting the stage for more intense colors which tend to operate as focal points

Contrast of Saturation Still Frame, ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Contrast of Saturation Richard Diebenkorn, ‘Ocean Park’

Contrast of Saturation Delta Airlines Advertisement

Contrast of Saturation Stacey Fisher

Contrast of Saturation George Shaw

Contrast of Hue • Color combinations featuring colors from a wide range of hues • Examples are primary and secondary color groupings • Tends to be eye-catching

Contrast of Hue Hokusai

Contrast of Hue World War II Era Poster (with Colbert Spoof)

Contrast of Hue ‘The Flame Alphabet’ Book Jacket Design

Contrast of Hue Bridget Riley

Contrast of Warm and Cool • A form of hue contrast, emphasizing differences in our perception of color temperature • Juxtaposes warm colors (yellow, red and orange) with cool color (green, blue and violet)

Contrast of Warm and Cool William Eggleston

Contrast of Warm and Cool Claude Monet, ‘Rouen Cathedral’

Contrast of Warm and Cool Mike Nemire

Contrast of Warm and Cool Kevin Wixted

Complementary Contrast • A form of hue contrast emphasizing pairs of opposite hues • Based on an equal interval between two hues and therefore tends to produce harmonious color combinations

Complementary Contrast ‘Kick Ass” Movie Poster

Complementary Contrast Jet Blue Ad Campaign

Complementary Contrast Frederic Remington, ‘A New Year on the Cimmaron’

Complementary Contrast Claes Oldenburg, “Saw’

Simultaneous Contrast • A color will call forth it’s opposite in adjacent colors • This causes colors to appear to change appearance in different contexts • Colors of very different hues and high saturation placed side-by-side will reinforce each other, creating an electric, vibrating edge at their border.

Simultaneous Contrast Josef Albers

Simultaneous Contrast Hans Hoffman, ‘Equinox’

Simultaneous Contrast Kehinde Wiley, ‘LL Cool J’

Simultaneous Contrast Ellsworth Kelly

Contrast of Extension (Proportion) • Color schemes emphasizing differences in the relative amount of colors in an image, i. e. lots of green and only a few spots of pink • Often there is a dominant ‘color key’ created by several similar colors, and one or more ‘color anomalies, ’ which tend to operate as focal points